A whole lot has changed in the nearly six years since “The Sopranos” cut to black.

To think: The show ended a full 15 months before Lehman Brothers collapsed, setting off the subprime mortgage crisis that sent the country — and a good chunk in the world — hurtling damn close to a second Great Depression.

How would Tony Soprano have handled that? After all, he did dabble in the stock market, and let’s not forget Carmela, his wife, had gotten into the buy-and-flip real estate business and …

“But wait,” you’re probably saying, “why the heck are you even talking about this? It’s an old story, and besides, we don’t even know if Tony lived! Remember? Members Only jacket guy, the sudden end of the show, the 10 seconds of black …”

Yeah well, two things: One, I don’t need an excuse to go back and talk about “The Sopranos,” which, for my money, remains the greatest television show (right with “Arrested Development”) of our time, and two, if I get an excuse to talk about “The Sopranos,” you better believe I’m going to run with it. And guess what? I’ve got an excuse.

The other night at the Princeton Public Library, I hosted a conversation with Steve Schirripa, who played Bobby Bacala on the show. Schirripa was in town to promote his new parenting/humor book, “Big Daddy’s Rules.” I have to admit: I was pretty psyched to host this thing. Not everyday you get to share a stage with one of the stars of your favorite show. (Again, except for “Arrested Development,” but how to compare these two shows? It’s like comparing apples and some fruit nobody’s ever heard of.)

So anyway, Schirripa and I meet “backstage” (more of a large storage closet) and we say hello to each other — super nice guy, one of those what-you-see-is-what-you-get fellas — and we go over some of the stuff we’re going to talk about regarding the book. As we’re doing this, he says, “We’ll talk about ‘The Sopranos,’ I’ll tell some stories …”

“You don’t mind if we talk about ‘The Sopranos?’” I asked.

“Of course not,” he said.Well, in that moment, I went from quasi-serious journalist moderating a discussion — seriously, all day I was pretending I was Dick Cavett — to ultimate fanboy chomping at the bit to ask the one question I simply had to ask.

But I waited. I waited until we were introduced. I waited until we talked about his book for 15 minutes. I waited until I couldn’t wait any longer. And then, dropped in like a grenade after he told a story about his kids, I asked, “So what happened to Tony? Is he alive?”

Schirripa didn’t miss a beat.“I think Tony is alive and well,” he said. “And still causing a ruckus.”

That was big. I mean, outside of creator David Chase, not many other people on this great green Earth would know if Tony Soprano made it.

Key word there: “Know.”So 15 minutes later, I brought it up again, after a bunch of other people asked “Sopranos”-related questions (and where I pretended to be Phil Donahue, bouncing around the room with a microphone): “Do you know Tony is alive, or do you think he’s alive?” I asked.

“It’s my feeling,” Schirripa said.

Well, good enough for me, because until Chase says one way or another, no one will ever “know.” But really: This is probably as close as any of us are ever going to get to an answer.

Which brings me back to the top of this piece: A lot has changed since we last saw Tony munching on some onion rings and jamming to Journey.

So how would Tony have handled the recession? Well, something tells me some of Carmela’s inventory would’ve been set on fire. I’d lay 3-to-1 Benny Fazio would be the guy lighting the match. Good kid.

Then of course there’s the matter of Gov. Chris Christie. You know one of Tony’s confidants — can’t you just picture Paulie being the one — saying something like, “Hey boss, you and the governor, you’re like two peas in a pod,” and then some unknown hanger-on, maybe a new guy in from the old world, says “essere come due gocce d’acqua” and then Tony beats him up for no good reason.

But yeah: I can see Tony having a grudging respect for our governor.

And can you imagine how these guys would have reacted to the Obama presidency? Not in a politically correct manner, you can be sure.

Yep. A lot has changed in the last six years, but one thing that hasn’t is the fascination with this show and the one question that might never be sufficiently answered.